How to Dynamically Generate PDFs in React?

Are you looking to create dynamic PDF generation functionality in your React application? Generating PDFs on the fly can enhance various aspects of your application, such as generating reports, exporting data, or creating invoices.

This article explains how to achieve dynamic PDF generation in React using a popular library called React-PDF. React-PDF is a versatile library that provides tools to create PDF documents in your React application.

Setting Up React-PDF

To start, set up your React project and install the necessary dependencies. If you have a React project, navigate to your project directory and install React-PDF using npm or yarn:

BashCopy code
npm install @react-pdf/renderer

Once React-PDF is installed, you are ready to build your dynamic PDF generation functionality.

Creating a Basic PDF Document

To create a basic PDF document using React-PDF, define the structure and layout of your PDF. React-PDF follows a component-based approach, making it easy to use.

Below is an example of a simple PDF document that contains a title and some text:

JavascriptCopy code
import React from 'react';
import { Document, Page, Text, View, StyleSheet } from '@react-pdf/renderer';

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  page: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
    backgroundColor: '#ffffff',
  },
  section: {
    margin: 10,
    padding: 10,
  },
});

const MyDocument = () => (
  <Document>
    <Page size="A4" style={styles.page}>
      <View style={styles.section}>
        <Text>This is a dynamically generated PDF using React-PDF.</Text>
      </View>
    </Page>
  </Document>
);

export default MyDocument;

In this example, we define a simple PDF document using the Document, Page, Text, and View components from React-PDF. You can style your PDF document using the StyleSheet object.

Adding Dynamic Data

Including dynamic data in PDFs is a key feature. React-PDF allows you to pass data to your PDF components like any other React component.

Let's modify the previous example to include dynamic data passed as props:

JavascriptCopy code
import React from 'react';
import { Document, Page, Text, View, StyleSheet } from '@react-pdf/renderer';

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  page: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
    backgroundColor: '#ffffff',
  },
  section: {
    margin: 10,
    padding: 10,
  },
});

const MyDocument = ({ title, content }) => (
  <Document>
    <Page size="A4" style={styles.page}>
      <View style={styles.section}>
        <Text>{title}</Text>
        <Text>{content}</Text>
      </View>
    </Page>
  </Document>
);

export default MyDocument;

Now, you can pass dynamic data to your PDF component when rendering it in your React application:

JavascriptCopy code
import React from 'react';
import { PDFViewer } from '@react-pdf/renderer';
import MyDocument from './MyDocument';

const App = () => (
  <PDFViewer>
    <MyDocument
      title="Dynamic PDF Generation"
      content="This PDF is dynamically generated with React-PDF."
    />
  </PDFViewer>
);

export default App;

Styling Your PDF

Styling is important for making your PDF visually appealing and readable. React-PDF provides a StyleSheet object to define styles for your PDF components.

Customize fonts, colors, margins, padding, and more using the StyleSheet object. Here’s how you can style your PDF document with React-PDF:

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const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  page: {
    flexDirection: 'row',
    backgroundColor: '#ffffff',
  },
  section: {
    margin: 10,
    padding: 10,
    flexGrow: 1,
  },
  title: {
    fontSize: 24,
    marginBottom: 10,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
  content: {
    fontSize: 16,
    textAlign: 'left',
  },
});

Apply these styles to your PDF components to achieve the desired layout.

Generating PDFs on User Interaction

You may want to generate PDFs based on user interactions, such as button clicks. React-PDF makes it easy to generate PDFs dynamically in response to user actions.

Let’s create a simple PDF generator component that generates a PDF on a button click:

JavascriptCopy code
import React from 'react';
import { PDFDownloadLink } from '@react-pdf/renderer';
import MyDocument from './MyDocument';

const PDFGenerator = () => (
  <div>
    <PDFDownloadLink
      document={<MyDocument title="Generated PDF" content="This PDF is dynamically generated on button click." />}
      fileName="generated_pdf.pdf"
    >
      {({ blob, url, loading, error }) => (loading ? 'Generating PDF...' : 'Download PDF')}
    </PDFDownloadLink>
  </div>
);

export default PDFGenerator;

In this example, when the user clicks the download link, the PDF is generated dynamically and available for download. Customize the filename and content based on your needs.

This article showed how to dynamically generate PDFs in React using the React-PDF library. Follow these steps to implement PDF generation functionality in your React applications.